Atlanta Mayor Defends Legal Face-Off With Georgia’s Governor Over Masks

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Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom, seen here in 2018, has called for mandatory mask wearing in her city.

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Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Essence

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Let me also ask you about plans for the new school year. One of your four children tested positive for [the coronavirus] and you and your husband did as well. How does that experience as the parent of a school-age child who had the disease affect your thinking about whether Atlanta students can safely go back to school in person?

My concern really is one that’s born out of our experience because, again, we had one of our children to test positive, asymptomatic, and then my husband and I became infected a week later. This is what our teachers, our custodians, our cafeteria workers, our bus drivers and so many others will face when our children go back to school. Not to mention many of our children in Atlanta have higher than the national average rates of asthma. Asthma is very common with African American children. African American children are more likely to die from asthma than other races. And so there are a number of concerns, including our children then perhaps being asymptomatic and then going home and infecting and impacting their families. And we know in Black and brown communities, COVID-19 is more likely to be deadly. …

As mayor, I don’t control the schools, per our city charter. It’s an independently elected school board along with [an] independently appointed superintendent. But that being said, we’re working very closely with our new superintendent to make sure that our children have what they need so that they can be prepared for school this fall.

Gus Contreras and Courtney Dorning produced and edited the audio story.

• Atlanta